First Irish Catholic Mayor of a US City

COUNTRIES owing millions or even billions to bondholders is nothing new. Back in the 1870s, Peru was at war with Chile.

Peru lost and ended up owing USD250million to American and British bondholders. Two Irishmen William Russell Grace and John Hely Hutchinson bought up all the bonds. In 1890, they made a contract with the Peruvian Government. They took over the national debt and were given many concessions in return. They, in effect, had a mortgage on the country. They got valuable silver mines, the country’s entire output of guano and five million acres of land with oil and mineral deposits. When the country developed its railways, Grace Brothers supplied practically all the necessary materials earning Grace the nickname the Pirate of Peru.
He was far from a pirate. During the Famine of the 1870s, he contributed vast amounts of aid to this country and founded the Grace Institute for the education of women and immigrants into the United States. He was a devout Catholic and during his two terms as Mayor of New York was a daily mass goer.
William Grace was born into a well-to-do Catholic family in Ireland in 1832. His father would not allow him join the Royal Navy so he ran away to sea and spent two years roaming the world. His father bought him a share in a Liverpool company but he soon tired of this and on his next rambles, he ended up in Peru. Some sources say that both father and son went to Peru but that the father returned to Ireland. He worked as a ship’s chandler catering for the exportation of guano, a vital ingredient in the manufacture of fertiliser and gunpowder. From that grew his business empire and within a short few years, he not only controlled the entire guano production but also set up his own shipping company to transport it. By the time he was in his mid-30s, he had moved his headquarters to New York.
He became involved in New York politics and in spite of his background, he defeated the Tammany Hall machine. Tammany Hall was based on immigrant support – particularly Irish – and had become a byword for corruption.
In 1880, Grace was elected mayor and his administration attacked the scandals and corruption which were rife in the city. He was defeated the next year but succeeded in being re-elected in 1884 only to lose again in 1885. No anti-Tammany Mayor was ever elected to two consecutive terms until Fiorello la Guardia in the 1930s.
From then on, he concentrated on his business and charitable interests. His two brothers, John and Michael, also joined the company and their interests were widespread. Following his death in 1904, the growth of the family businesses continued. At one time, they owned a substantial share of the Miller Brewing Company and were one of the first wholly foreign owned companies to set up business in the People’s Republic of China.
William Russell Grace businessman, philanthropist and politician became the first ever Catholic and the first Irishman to be elected Mayor of any of the major cities in the United States when he was elected Mayor of New York on November 2, 1880 – 130 years ago this week.